Japan’s bear crisis deepens with four more attacks

A bear has attacked four people in eastern Japan, leaving an elderly woman with severe injuries.

The incident in Fukushima has left the country on edge after a spate of attacks last year led to Japan’s Army being dispatched to set traps.

A record 13 people were killed in more than 230 bear attacks last year, while this year three have died and more than 20 people have been injured since April.

In the latest attack, a black bear charged across two factories and a residential area, injuring four people.

In CCTV footage, the bear is seen running towards a man standing at the edge of a parking lot, before jumping on him and knocking him to the ground.

The bear then ran towards the building’s entrance where it injured a second man.

It injured a third man at another factory in the city, as well as the elderly woman in a residential area, according to the Fukushima city fire department.

Of the four, the woman suffered severe injuries while the other three suffered only minor injuries. As of yesterday NZT, the bear had yet to be caught.

Two schools located near the second company, where the bear was believed to be hiding, were closed.

Meanwhile, a 73-year-old woman was found dead in a wooded area in a suspected bear attack in Akita prefecture, northwest of Fukushima.

Akita reported four of the 13 deaths last year as well as a sixfold increase in bear sightings.

Japan has been grappling with a record number of bear attacks, which experts said was because of a shrinking human population, a growing bear population and a lack of food, made worse when the animals emerge from hibernation.

Bears, of which there are an estimated 54,000 in Japan, have been seen on airport runways, in supermarkets and throughout residential areas.

The rate of attacks became so extreme that late last year Japan deployed troops to Akita prefecture to help contain the surge.

The soldiers were tasked with setting box traps with food, transporting hunters and disposing of dead bears, but were not to use guns against them.

The United States State Department even issued a warning advising American travellers to Japan to be alert for bears.

The majority of bear attacks in Japan have been in the north, but there have also been reports further south, such as in Fukushima.

This year, there have been more than a dozen bear sightings near Tokyo, with one Russian man claiming he was mauled when he went on a hike in the city in May.

Japan is home to two bear species, brown bears, which can weigh more than 450kg and typically live in the country’s northernmost Hokkaido Island, as well as the Asian black bear, or moon bear, which are smaller and can be found further south.

Given their size, brown bears are significantly stronger and their attacks are far more likely to be fatal.

Officials have adopted a plan for bear-population management that calls for systematic culling.

The number of municipal bear-control staff will triple to 2500 within five years, while the number of bear traps will double.

Japan’s Government has stepped up a public awareness campaign, urging hikers and mushroom hunters to check notifications about bear sightings and avoid outdoor activity in the early morning and evening when bears are active.

An Environment Ministry manual advises that anyone encountering a bear should not panic, move slowly and avoid turning around and running.

As a last resort, the manual says anyone attacked should turn face down, crouch in a ball and cover their neck.

Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.